Nature, Castles and Bear Hunts through Dolphins

It's been a few weeks since we reported on our Dolphins group, mostly because there has been so much going on that doing has taken up all the time that writing takes! Where to start? Well, we last talked about nature and have continued with that interest which has taken us in all sorts of directions.

Most of the children have made little bird feeders by sticking seeds onto lolly sticks or on little pine cones. We have also been watching our peas and beans grow with great interest and the biggest excitement has been seeing a little strawberry come out and hoping we’ll see it grow into a big one. How we are going to split it among 30 odd children is a challenge for later- hopefully more will grow!
The animal interest has been fun too. We’ve made and decorated rabbits ears, bear masks, danced with animal movements, painted pictures of animals and loved reading ‘Going on a Bear Hunt’, By Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury. The preschool group have been really enthused by Going on a Bear Hunt and have been acting out the story and turning it into a play to perform for the rest of the group.

Interests always seem to change and sprout from almost nowhere and emerging over the last few weeks has also been a keen interest in castles. After a few deliveries with big boxes the preschoolers made the Tower of London complete with drawbridge. The children have loved playing in it and acting out kings and queens. They have made crowns and dressed up to act out their monarchy. Discussions have been intense about what kinds of things people did in the olden days and most importantly, what kind of animals they had!
We now also have castles growing from blocks and Lego and the fantasy and interest is spilling over into the rest of the Dolphins group.